C'garh: Elephants kill man in forest of Jashpur district

A 55-year-old man was killed by a herd of wild elephants in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, a forest official said on Tuesday. The victim identified as Babulal was attacked by tuskers near Samdama village under Tapkara forest range on Monday evening, said Srikrishna Jadhav, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Jashpur forest division. The victim and another villager had ventured into the forest for some work, when they encountered a herd of pachyderms, the official said.

A 55-year-old man was killed by a herd of wild elephants in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, a forest official said on Tuesday. The victim identified as Babulal was attacked by tuskers near Samdama village under Tapkara forest range on Monday evening, said Srikrishna Jadhav, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Jashpur forest division.

The victim and another villager had ventured into the forest for some work, when they encountered a herd of pachyderms, the official said. While the other man managed to escape, the tuskers caught hold of Babulal and slammed him on the ground, killing him on the spot, he said.

Forest and police personnel rushed to the scene and sent the body for post-mortem, he said. An instant relief amount of Rs 25,000 has been given to the kin of the deceased and the remaining compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh will be released after completion of necessary formalities, the DFO added.

Villagers have been alerted about a herd of 25 elephants that has been wandering in Tapkara area, adjoining Odisha, for the last couple of days, he said. Several incidents of human-elephant conflict have been reported from the thick forested northern Chhattisgarh, comprising Surguja, Surajpur, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur, Balrampur and Koriya districts.